'Ravi Bishnoi is ahead at the moment' - Dinesh Karthik on potential replacement of Yuzvendra Chahal

Dinesh Karthik, in a conversation, said that Yuzvendra Chahal has been lucky to stay in the Indian team as there is no one to push him out of the place. Notably, Yuzvendra Chahal was left out of the Indian squad in the ICC T20 World Cup 2022. He was called back for the series against New Zealand right after.

Yuzvendra Chahal has been a part of the Indin white-ball team for many years now. His presence in the team meant at least a wicket or two in every game. Him being left out of the T20 World Cup came as a shock to many. However, that no longer is the case. His performance has gone down in recent times and his numbers in the recent series against South Africa are proof of that. He got just two wickets in the three-match ODI series.

The 36-year-old feels Ravi Bishnoi or Rahul Chahar are the options India has as Chahal’s replacement. Bishnoi, however, is ahead at the moment, he added.

In a conversation with Cricbuzz, Karthik said, “At this point of time, outside of Chahal, if you got to pick a wrist-spinner, then there is Rahul Chahar and Ravi Bishnoi. And looking at the way things have panned out, I do feel Bishnoi is ahead at the moment right now. But we need to see how badly is Chahal bowling. His stats say that he hasn’t had the best of years. But in many ways, he has been lucky because there is nobody pushing him for a place in the squad.”

Dinesh Karthik on lack of domestic competitions

The cricketer said lack of domestic competitions due to covid has resulted in there not being too many options of wrist spinners. India has a variety of fast bowlers but not many wrist spinners.

Adding to it, he said,  “And that will remain an issue due to lack of domestic cricket because you need people with a lot of wickets, especially wrist spinners, and they haven’t played the longer format. They play only 4-5 games of Vijay Hazare and that’s all you get as a sample to choose from.”

“Covid-19 has created havoc in domestic games. While a lot of the international cricketers want a break, the domestic cricketers want a game right now,” concluded Karthik.